Ocean Floor Spreading

A series of processes in which new oceanic lithosphere is created at oceanic ridges.

Ocean floor spreading. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. The rate at which new oceanic lithosphere is added to each tectonic plate on either side of a mid ocean ridge is the spreading half rate and is equal to half of the spreading rate. The process of sea floor spreading. The oceanic crust is composed of rocks that move away from the ridge as new crust is being formed.

Meaning pronunciation translations and examples. Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. The mid atlantic ridge for instance separates the north american plate from the eurasian plate and the south american plate from the african plate the east pacific rise is a mid ocean ridge that runs through the eastern pacific ocean and separates the pacific plate from the north american. The formation of the new crust is due to the rising of the molten material magma from the mantle by convection current.

Ocean floor spreading definition. This spreading creates a successively younger ocean floor and the flow of material is thought to bring about the migration or drifting apart of the continents. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading samples collected from the ocean floor show that the age of oceanic crust increases with distance from the spreading centre important evidence in favour of this process. The mid ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic crust is created.